by May Sage
The next few minutes were painful. She didn’t moan, or make one sound that might indicate pleasure. She insulted him regularly as he abused her body, hitting it, always avoiding the face, and fucking her.
This was everything the Kings had fought for so long. The very reason why their father had founded the first Tower, right here in NYC: a safe place to practice the lifestyle in good company, a place that didn’t allow for abuse.
And all along that had been happening right under their noses.
Fuck.
Now was the time to clean house, starting with this poor excuse for a human being, and getting rid of every single one of the people who acted like him.
“I…”
Tommy didn’t know what to say by the time Wallace was done. Mav was also feeling quite sick. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen bondage, flogging, beatings, anal, or anything like that before. But this wasn’t BDSM. This was rape, plain and simple.
Des’ expression had gone completely blank. Stony. So fucking cold.
“Desmond?”
“I want him killed. Beaten, like her, first. And castrated.”
Mav nodded, as Cal said, “Sounds good to me. And we know plenty of people who can arrange that once he’s behind bars.”
“I didn’t hear a word of that,” said Tommy. “Also, I fucking approve.”
They had enough on him to conduct a solid case. This should have been the end. But the poor naked girl on the desk was a fucking trooper.
“You’re pathetic. You think this makes you powerful? You think stealing money from the company you work for makes you successful? You’re just a piece of trash and I can’t wait to see you fall.”
Kathryn knew it was going to earn her another punishment. She knew it, and when the kick right in her stomach came, she took it.
“I just fucked your ass raw, and I fuck the Kings every time I wanna take what’s theirs. They’re pathetic and I am powerful, stupid girl. Go make yourself presentable. You’re on the clock. Don’t put panties on. Whores don’t need those.”
“That’s a wrap. We have everything we need. Call Ryn. Tell her to get out of there right now, I’m on my way to pick her up.”
Des stormed out on that note.
“Ryn?” Mav repeated, and Cal shrugged both shoulders, as stunned as him.
“Kathryn, presumably,” Tommy proposed.
He didn’t get it. The brothers were astonished because Desmond never used nicknames with anyone, except Mav and Cal. But Kathryn was Ryn, apparently.
Now wasn’t that just fascinating.
Date
She was going to kill Jasmine. Seriously. At no point had she given her consent - none. Yet, she found herself having to get dressed in a rush on a Thursday evening.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier!" She rushed from the bathroom to her New York size closet.
Jasmine had set up a blind date with one of her colleagues for her. Bitch.
"Because if I had, you would have cancelled it."
Good point.
"Seriously. You were grumbling about not finding any hot guys in the city for weeks - now I'm telling you I have one lined up and you're growling?"
Well, a few weeks ago, she didn't have Maverick King texting her and buying her little things.
On Tuesday, he sent his first text, randomly asking her what she liked to eat as a treat, and she'd replied, French stuff. A courier came an hour later, delivering her little patisseries, which was cute as fuck and panty-melting like nothing else.
They'd exchanged texts since. Polite and friendly, with the bare minimum of innuendo. Having gotten the hard fucking out of the way, it seemed that Maverick now intended to get to know her. Which was awesome, and definitely contributed to the reason why she really, really didn't want to go on a blind date right now.
But as Jasmine had told her while the guy was on his way to the restaurant, she didn't have any choice but to suck it up and go.
Half an hour later, she decided that death was the easy way out. Oh, no. Jasmine was going to get tortured for days. With a teaspoon.
"Yes, A.I." the man repeated stubbornly. "They're here to take over the world. Terminator used to be a fantasy but given what they've been doing with A.I. these days? It'll be less than a decade before machines take over and they'll kill us all."
Could they kill them now, before she was done with this blind date? She didn't mind the occasional apocalyptic theory, but whatever the subject, be it toothpaste or books, he went back to A.I., which would doom them all.
Seriously. Fucking seriously. She was going to kill Jasmine for this.
She'd said the man was sweet, and after her night with Maverick, sweet hadn't seemed like the worst idea in the world. Just to get some perspective. She was jumping head first down the rabbit hole without a clue about how the rest of the world did it.
Right now, she was all for getting dominated, anally fucked, debased in public - as long as her partner wasn't talking about A.I. while he did any of that shit.
"Yes, agreed. But going back to food, what's your favorite?"
"Italian. I do love a good pizza. But once the machines take over, you'll see, all the food we'll be able to get will either be processed, or picked and hunted like they used to be in the old days."
Somehow, she managed not to groan. Lexi was trying to decide whether she should pretend to go to the restroom and run for it, or just tell him to fuck the hell off. The issue was, if she did disappear without any warning, no doubt the fanatic would suspect A.I. and mount a rescue mission to save her.
Her phone vibrated on the table, and checking it was rude as fuck, but at this point, she just needed a distraction. Hoping for an emergency, or at least an alert indicating that A.I. was actually taking over, Terminator style, she turned the phone’s screen to find the next best thing.
What's your favorite color?
She smiled.
I bet yours is black.
* * *
Black isn't a color. It's actually the absence of color. And that wasn’t an answer.
"Is everything alright?" Robby, Mr. A.I., asked.
Seeing an opportunity, Lexi forced a frown. "Not sure."
She typed at the speed of light.
Call me now and I'll tell you.
After a few seconds, her phone showed an incoming call from Mav's number.
"Excuse me. This may be important," she told her date, before dashing out of the restaurant and taking the call.
"Oh, thank God you called."
"Is everything alright?"
Maverick sounded worried.
"Yes, sorry that was a little alarmist. Nothing too bad. Except, my roommate made me go on a stupid blind date with the single most boring man in the galaxy. He's literally worried about Judgment Day. Seriously. He's been talking about A.I. for two hours straight. So, yeah, I'm going to pretend this was a super important call from my sick friend or something, and get out of here."
He was silent on the other end of the phone.
"Maverick?"
"I'm here." After a beat, he sighed. "Sorry. I just...don't like it."
She frowned.
"You, going on a date. Well, if you have to do these things, I'd rather it was with me."
She winced.
"Jasmine literally told me I had to get downstairs, to the Indian place opposite our apartment, ten minutes before the guy was due to show up. She knew I would have cancelled - I'm normally a homebody on weekdays. I could have stood him up, but..."
"You don't need to justify yourself, Alexia," he replied without any sort of censure. "We don't have an understanding; you are free to do as you please. I'm saying, I'd like to date you. Exclusively."
Oh.
Oh.
"Right. Yeah. I mean, sure. I'd...like that."
"Good. I'll take you out tomorrow night. Per Se. As long as you're free."
"I'm free. I mean, if you want to..."
"I do. Now, tell me."
As she'd lost most
of her brain functions by then, she replied eloquently, "Huh?"
"Your favorite color, Alexia."
Layers
He had had a fucking long week, and Mav would have thought he needed to chill, completely clear his mind from the mess he'd witnessed, from the upcoming nasty legal battle they had on their hands, from their finances.
Fifteen minutes into their dinner, somewhat hypnotized by her pretty doe eyes, there he was, spilling his guts.
"So all along, he was blackmailing that poor woman."
Mav nodded.
"Yes, Kathryn stole all the money; that much is certain. We got lucky our private investigator isn't the kind of guy to call it a day at that. He'd looked at her profile for days, and nothing in her way of life, or in her accounts, showed any extravagance, any sort of way she could have spent it at all. I think his wife suggested a third party. So, he dug. You genuinely don't want to hear what he's done to her."
Lexi shuddered, but her imagination couldn't be any worse than reality. Suddenly, the gourmet appetizer he'd been enjoying tasted like sand in his mouth.
"What's going to happen to her?"
Great question.
"If we can help it, her name won't hit the case. It's going to happen behind closed doors in any case. We'll make sure that she's financially secure; hell, for the rest of time. That she gets therapy, too. She was one of our employees and we let her down. This- we should have seen it. Seen the traces. There were many red flags. They're just hard to see in our...circle."
This should have completely sealed the deal, forever making him believe that he was done with the Tower. Done with the entire scene, the lifestyle.
Instead, the previous day had made him feel the exact opposite. He'd walked away because he'd believed he was a shit dom, not fit to take care of a sub properly. Not observant enough, attentive enough. Wallace put things into perspective. Mav didn't suck. He had cared about Sarah. Loved her. Taken care of every one of her needs, and her wants, too. She'd just been haunted by demons she chose to keep to herself. Her choice. Ultimately, it had all been her choice.
Still, Mav had learned a valuable lesson. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. He'd ask the deeper stuff. He'd want to know why Lexi frowned, why she was staring into emptiness. What made her tick, what scars lay under her flawless flesh. He was going to make her his in every way, as long as she was up for the ride.
"Enough about this mess. God knows we'll have to deal with more of it soon enough. Tell me about you. What have you been up to this week?"
"Well," Lexi smiled, "I went on a date yesterday."
He grimaced. Yeah, that.
"And another one today. That officially makes it the most socially interesting week I've ever had in New York."
He believed her. She obviously wasn't showing her pretty face out-of-doors often, or she wouldn't have kept her fucking hymen intact for twenty-eight years. Yeah, that still blew his mind. And made him feel like the king of the jungle all at once.
"What do you do when you're not social, then?"
Lexi looked away and cleared her throat.
"Alright, I'll go first. I play chess. Online. I get unreasonably pissed when I don't win, by the way."
She laughed. "I guessed you all play. I mean you and your brothers. Otherwise, why would your employees at...the club, wear a pin with a tower, a knight, and the King?"
He smiled.
"Oh, yes. And the others are definitely bad losers, too. We sporadically beat each other - it's all good fun. Although, there's one adversary not one of us has ever beaten. Ever. Our father."
Her brows lifted. "Even now, while he's faring poorly?"
"Yep. Don't think we're above trying our best against him simply because he isn't quite a hundred percent there. And he still wins."
"You're obviously very fond of him," she smiled back. "Being away from him while you're traveling must suck."
It had.
"Yes. He's good fun, and honestly, I owe him so much. We all do. It's not just the money, the company, or the fact that he was quite simply a good father. He's shown me - all three of us - the man we'd like to become. Shown us the life we wanted to live. My father sang to my mother and danced with her every night. He brought her flowers, never missed date night. And we learned, when we were old enough, that she knelt for him. I'm pretty certain he created the Tower as a safe environment for the love of his life. They were kinky. They loved being seen. And he wanted to do so someplace where she wouldn't have to worry." He sighed.
"Flowers, dancing, and singing? Now, that explains it. You're keeping him hidden away so we don't all throw ourselves at his feet." She must have noticed he hadn't mentioned his mother much, so she asked, "And your mom?"
"She died twenty years ago. Cancer. He doesn't say her name anymore. He may not even remember her. Which could be a good thing. His grief when it happened; there's no word for it."
At the time, he hadn't understood it, but after losing Sarah, Maverick had been able to imagine. Sarah wasn't his Minerva King. She hadn't been the love of his life, like his mother had been for his father, he knew that now. But still, it had affected him for years.
"He sounds like a fascinating man."
Maverick opened his mouth and closed it again. Had he seriously been about to ask her to come with him on Sunday? If he did that, his brothers were never going to leave him alone. The teasing was going to be unbearable.
Not to mention that they'd also pop open a bottle of champagne when they realized he was done running. Traveling to the end of the world to be anywhere but home.
He was exactly where he wanted to be.
"Anyway, I did my part. You know ninety percent of my backstory. Your turn. We were discussing what you like to do at home."
Lexi coughed awkwardly, before taking her flute of champagne and drinking a long sip.
"Well," she said awkwardly, making him smile.
"You totally knit, don't you?"
"I do," she replied with a glare, "but only once in a blue moon. No, I spend most of my time writing. A long, long fantasy book. Two thousand, one hundred and seventeen pages long, actually. If I was ever going to publish it, I'd divide it into, like, five books."
He frowned, wondering why the fuck she was embarrassed about that.
"That's amazing."
She seemed genuinely surprised to see he meant it.
"Seriously. I was going to ask if you wanted to head up to the Tower after dinner..."
"I do," she replied.
"But I'd rather just take a look at that book of yours."
"You're fucking kidding me."
"Nope. I want to read it."
She was already fervently shaking her head.
"Come on. I swear I won't be nasty, if it's not my thing. I just want to try it."
"No. Let's go to the Tower. I'm offering pussy."
"I can have pussy after reading your book. Come on. Please."
"No. No way. No how."
Four hours later, he was turning pages of a printed-out manuscript at the speed of light, the glasses he never wore in public perched atop his nose. Seven hours later, he fell asleep on Lexi's beat-up old mattress, next to her warmth.
He blinked awake late in the morning. She was still asleep.
Good. Maverick shifted to hover over her beautiful, peaceful frame. Then he parted her legs with his shoulders and buried his head between her thighs.
We’re All Mad Here
Maverick King didn't belong in the shoebox apartment, that much was obvious to the three witnesses who watched him make pancakes in their tiny kitchen, mouths slightly agape. If there was a bit of drool at the corner of any of their mouths, no one could blame them.
Jade and Jasmine both turned to Lexi, with a purposeful questioning stare. She just blushed and stared back. Hell if she could explain the hows and whys. What mattered was that he was here.
"Here, ladies." He served them each a plate with thick, sexy pancakes, and with sexy chocol
ate ice cream, and strawberries.
"Can we marry him?" Jasmine asked. "I don't mind sharing."
Lexi glared. "Hands off."
"And no fucking wonder you didn't wanna hang with Robby Potter."
"I haven't forgiven you for Mr. A.I. yet," she pointed out, before taking the first mouthful and moaning.
Damn, the pancakes were so fucking good.
Maverick came to sit next to her, kissing her shoulder before attacking his own food.
"We didn't have strawberries. Or whatever magic you used to get this done. This is certainly not the mix on top of the shelf."
He grimaced at the term "mix" like it was blasphemy to his posh ears. Which it probably was.
"I had a courier deliver groceries for breakfast."
Which meant he could have just ordered breakfast from somewhere, but he'd taken the time to make it, instead.
Yeah, she was swooning. Maverick had the power to make women swoon before coffee.
"Thank you for this." She smiled a little awkwardly. "So, what does a King do with his Saturday?"
"See to the fort, round up the subjects, speak with knights, flirt with ladies." He winked. "Taking clues out of that book of yours. I don't fucking know, though. Normally, I wake up and aim to spend as much time in PJs as possible. But nine times out of ten, someone does something stupid that requires me putting on a damn suit."
She was going to fall in love with this man. Hard. Her poor, poor little heart was in for a fucking skydive.
"I need to stop by my brother's at some point. Desmond," he specified. "He took the work issue I mentioned yesterday personally. Wallace was working right under him, so he feels responsible. Guilt is a powerful thing. I know a thing or two about it."
"So, you're going to give him words of advice," Jade guessed.
Maverick crooked a brow. "No. I'm going to give him bad beer and good whiskey." He shrugged. "I'm his brother, not his shrink."
"Family day, then." She nodded, before turning to Jade. "I think I'll be taking a class if you have any room to squeeze me in this afternoon? My back has been sore. Yoga should help."
